USAV Collegiate Beach Championships
· May 11-13, 2017 / Hermosa Beach, California
It will be an all USC final at the USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Pairs Championships Saturday afternoon as both No. 1 pair Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes and No. 3 pair Terese Cannon and Nicolette Martin both outlasted their foes in three-set semifinal matches Saturday morning.
Top seeded Claes/Hughes are 6-0 in the tournament and edged Pepperdine’s Corinne Quiggle and Brittany Howard 18-21, 21-14, 15-11 in the semifinals. Fourth-seeded Cannon/Martin squeaked past Georgia State’s Chelsea Ross and Delaney Rohan 18-21, 23-21, 15-13 to earn a spot in the finals.
It's an all @USCBeach final after Terese Cannon and Nicolette Martin defeat Georgia State in the third! #SCS2017 pic.twitter.com/H7XE1fcw7z
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) May 13, 2017
Quiggle/Howard will face Ross/Rohan for third place at 3 p.m. ET Saturday. Claes/Hughes and Cannon/Martin will face off for the title at 6 p.m. ET. NBCSN will air the women’s final live.
Claes/Hughes won Pool A and played through Florida State’s Victoria Paranagua and Vanessa Freire in the Round of 16 and Loyola Marymount’s Sarah Sponcil and Savannah Slattery in the quarterfinals. The pair, which went 38-1 on the No. 1 line for USC and won the Pac-12 pairs title, advanced to the semifinals with a 21-17, 21-18 win over the LMU duo. The duo had to beat teammates Sophie Bukovec and Allie Wheeler in the Pac-12 Pairs title match.
Fourth-seeded Cannon/Martin are 5-1 in the tournament after finishing third in Pool D and topping Pepperdine’s Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh in the Round of 16 and Arizona’s Madison and McKenna Witt in the quarterfinals en route to the title match. Cannon/Martin, which posted a 24-5 mark at No. 3 and secured the final point in the national champion match for the Trojans, moved on to the semifinals after edging the Witt twins 20-22, 21-19, 15-12.
Quiggle/Howard are 5-1 in the championships, after winning Pool E and defeating Long Beach State’s Rachel Nieto and Kobi Pekich in the Round of 16 and edging Florida State’s Leigh Andrew and Brooke Kuhlman 21-23. 23-21, 15-12 in the quarterfinals. The No. 5 seeded duo went 28-3 at No. 2 for the Waves in 2017.
Ross/Rohan are 4-2, finishing second in Pool E and downing LSU’s Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss in the Round of 16 and Saint Mary’s Lindsey Knudsen and Payton Rund in the quarterfinals. The duo, which earned the No. 17 seed in the tournament, went 24-10 on the No. 1 line for Georgia State.
The Collegiate Beach Pairs Championships event is part of the Team USA Summer Champions Series and will serve as a Team USA Trials, with the top men’s and women’s pairs garnering a spot on the USA Volleyball collegiate beach national team.
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